In this reading journal I will post the contents of and my thoughts on any books I read, regardless of whether or not I liked it or even finished it.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

DESIRE'S EDGE

TITLE: DESIRE’S EDGE

AUTHOR: EVE BERLIN

Pages: 278

Date: 05/05/2013

Grade: 4+

Details: no. 2 The Edge Trilogy

Received from Black Lace / Ebury Publishing

Through Nudge

Own

Kara Crawford has lots of experience when it comes to
not being good enough. She could never be exactly what her parents expected her
to be, although she gave up her dream of being an artist for them. And her last
boyfriend left her as soon as she shared her kinky fantasies with him. By this
stage in her life she has accepted that she will never live up to whatever
expectations others may have of her. And if that means giving up on the dream
of love and security, so be it. Not chancing her heart has to be better than
having it broken. So when she meets Dante De Matteo, years after she last saw
him in high school, she is happy to admit to the heat between them, delighted
to give into the pull of that attraction and ecstatic when it turns out that
his sexual desires mirror hers exactly. With him she can live out her dark
fantasies without risking her heart. Or so she tells herself.

Dante De Matteo has his own reasons for never allowing
his heart into the relationships he has. He needs to be in total control of
everything and everybody in his life. This makes him the perfect Dom when it
comes to casual relationships and playing out scenes with willing subs in his
local BDSM club, The Pleasure Dome. But he doesn’t do love, doesn’t believe in
commitment and all the risks that carries with it. And casual pleasure is enough;
he doesn’t need anything more. Or so he tells himself.

When Kara and Dante meet by coincidence during a
housewarming party it doesn’t take long for the heat between them to ignite.
Neither does it take them long to discover that they are erotically made for
each other. Dante loves to give what Kara aches to receive. And so they find
themselves drawn to each other; incapable of denying the pleasures they bring
each other, even if it does mean conducting a more or less secret affair.

But while their bodies and their heads are more than
willing, their hearts are unable to play ball. While neither of them is looking
for love and both of them are convinced that they are unable of truly
committing to another, neither of them can stop their feelings from growing
stronger. These feelings however could tear them apart just as easily as they
might bring them together. What happens when the fear of love and commitment is
as strong as the need to be together?

This was a charming and very erotic romance. Kara and
Dante are interesting and strong characters. Both of them have plausible
reasons for being afraid of love and commitment, and for the most part the way
their relationship develops - or fails to develop depending on how you want to
look at it - makes perfect sense. I liked the fact that for most of the story
these two characters managed to find a way to communicate with each other,
despite their fears. Maybe they weren’t completely honest with themselves or
each other but that fitted perfectly into the story and didn’t upset me.

“Don’t think about
it. Just enjoy it. Enjoy him.”

A very large part of the story in this book is told
through the sexual encounters between Kara and Dante. Their relationship builds
through their kinky encounters, their characters develop as a result of the
discoveries they make while they’re engaged in steamy scenes and the story is
pushed forward by Kara’s introduction into the world of power-play and Dante’s
discovery that maybe there is more to intimacy than just that. I’m in awe that
Eve Berlin managed to write a predominantly sex-based story that delivered so
much more than just tantalising scenes. Because it’s not always about the sexy
descriptions; sometimes the beauty of a story is in simple sentences like:

“He was so comfortable
with her.”

It was the small things I loved; the way Dante, in all
his Dominance, just wants to please Kara, make her experience all the
sensations she had only been dreaming about until then. I adored the way they
both opened up to each other almost despite their better judgments. Neither of
them thinks they are ready for or want a relationship beyond wonderful sex.
Both of them think they have perfect reasons for avoiding a relationship. And
yet, they find themselves establishing one without acknowledging it, to each
other or to themselves.

“And he was so full
of shit. Because for the first time in his life, something was happening that
he didn’t entirely have control over. And that something was Kara Crawford.”

Because this story is told from both Kara’s and
Dante’s perspective the reader has a wonderful opportunity to see how both of
them change and grow into the relationship neither of them thought they wanted.
I find that when a story is told in this way it is easier to get caught up in
the story, easier to connect with the characters in question and understand
what is happening.

Overall I enjoyed this steamy and romantic book
tremendously. My one, minor, objection to this book? There is one point in the
development of the relationship that is just too similar to what happened in Pleasure’sEdge. It seemed to me that the reaction of both characters and the way
they felt and behaved afterwards was almost a carbon copy of what I had read
before. Mind you, this won’t stop me from reading the third book, Temptation’s
Edge, in the very near future. I do hope though that I won’t come
across that particular development again.

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About Me

My name is Marleen. I'm Dutch but have been living in Ireland for well over 15 years now. I have a passion and love for reading and books. Since early 2008 I have been lucky enough to have been working part time in the library in Bailieborough, Co. Cavan where among other things I run the library reading group.
I will read almost anything that has words in it, and post my thoughts on everything I read in this blog:

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In this blog I write my thoughts on every book I read. Some I will have brought home from the library, some will have been bought while others will have been sent to me for review. I do not get paid for reading and reviewing any books and all opinions are mine and mine alone. Whether a book was borrowed, bought or received will be indicated at the top of every review.

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